So how do we fully utilise music to
evangelise? First of all, we have bible verses which can be memorised through a
catchy song. This is often used to teach young children through repetition of
the verse until they can sing from memory. By doing so, these children would
have learnt much of the bible by the time they are teenagers. Knowing the bible
well leads to knowing Jesus better and His command to go out to proclaim the
Good News.
For youths, due to their energetic and
impressionable ways, perhaps musical plays concerning the life of Christ, the
life of a saint, a story based on a passage from the bible, or even a story
which reflects a Christian virtue or Christian life situation could be
meaningful. This is because such musical plays give our youth an opportunity to
express themselves both visually and audibly, while proclaiming a Christian
message to the audience. Furthermore, since many of our youth can be influenced
by their peers, inviting and encouraging the older youth to participate in such
musical plays could encourage the younger ones to tag along and become
involved, because they see their friends taking part and would not want to be
left out. Some examples I recall are the Witness, which is about the life of
Jesus; and The Choice, which is about the life of a Roman Centurion who later
became a Christian when he had a conversion experience upon witnessing the
passion and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
Youth concerts and rallies, where a lot
of Christian music is played and sung, are also another form of evangelising.
When our youth bring their non-Christian friends along, the charged atmosphere
and powerful songs soon lead our young friends to their feet, singing,
clapping, cheering and dancing away. Of course, this would need to be followed
up by keeping in touch and using other forms of evangelisation, such as
providing reading material and personal testimonies from other youths, so that
the Gospel message can be experienced and learnt.
Music workshops for youths and other
interested parties could be a great way to evangelisation. People could be
invited first to have a jamming session with their Christian friends and
hopefully, they may become more interested in Christianity, as the join the fun
in playing and singing Christian songs.
In this age of the internet, using a
website is also a powerful means of evangelising; more so if Christian music is
promoted on the website. Through such a website, people from all over the world
can gain access to such songs, listen to them, and perhaps through the
meaningful words and lovely melodies, they too may become interested to know
more about the Christian faith. This is made even more effective when some
basic Catholic teaching is included in the website, enabling visitors to read something
about the Catholic faith while listening to the songs.
Even hand phones and MP3 players so
commonly used these days can be deployed as a form of evangelising. How so? By
using ring tones in the form of Christian songs, since many hand phones
nowadays support complex polyphony features, someone just might get inspired to
enquire more about that ring tone and the Christian can then introduce the
other person to Jesus. Friends could share the earphone plug of an MP3 player
with another friend who may not be a Christian, and this could lead to further
enquiries about the Christian song being played, especially if it is a catchy
or “cool” tune, and further evangelisation could occur.
Through singing the story of Jesus,
singing what we believe and sharing the Christian music we enjoy, we give
people a context for living. As we relive the coming of Christ into the world,
our own lives make sense. In worship and song we see ourselves on the continuum
of time – we live for the here and now, with an eye for the future.
